Working Children in Lebanon

Working children are one of the most pressing social problems in Lebanon. A great number of working children can be found in suburban and poor rural areas.

The latest official study conducted by UNICEF (1998) indicated that there were 28.786 working children in Lebanon aged 14 to 17 years. In the category of 10 to 13 years there were about 3163 working children, about 1.2% of the total of Lebanese children of that age group. Recent surveys and estimations suggest that these numbers are continuously increasing.

The North of Lebanon has the greatest number of working children in the country. They are primarely concentrated in the areas of Tripoli, Akkar and Minnyeh.

The majority of children work in jobs that demand little qualification, mostly manual work. They primarily work in car shops, and to a lesser degree in carpentry, but above all in marginal occupations like trash collection, cleaning and car mechanics. 82% of these children work 8 to 12 hours per day and sometimes even more. Only 4.6 % of them manage to pursue an education parallel to their work. Nevertheless, a great majority of working children, about 88%, has expressed a desire to attend vocational training sessions and literacy courses.

This phenomenon is a direct result of the Lebanese civil war and the post-war economic situation, as it did not exist prior to 1975. Fortunately however, since the ratification of the Convention for Children's Rights by the Lebanese Parliament in 1991, public interest in the eradication of this problem has increased. On the legislative level, the law on the legal age for work was amended in 1996 and the minimum age was increased from 8 to 13 years old. In 1999, a decree was issued which defined and forbid hazardous jobs for children below 16 years of age.

Lebanon has signed most of the international conventions related to children's rights, notably:

The International pact for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)
The International Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Educational Discrimination (1960)
The Convention on Children's Rights (1989)

Despite these numerous measures, a great number of children continue to live under extremely difficult conditions. Over the last 30 years, there has been a considerable increase in the number of orphans, children affected by the war and other armed conflicts, displaced children, working children, and children exposed to criminal behavior or in prison.

Over the last few years, RMF has conducted various activities for working children, mainly in the Bab el Tebbaneh area. These include:

Reintegration programs: literacy sessions for children who prematurely dropped out of the school, and basic reading, writing and arithmetics
Vocational orientation with field visits to factories and workshops
Awareness sessions on the threats of hazardous work environments
Medical checkups
Social assistance for children and parents
Training of trainers and teachers
Recreational clubs: educational, cultural, and sport activities
Special classes for girls

In September 2004, RMF began the implementation of the ACCESS project, a four-year project that will provide direct education interventions for working children, aiming to eliminate exploitive child labor.

In March 2005, a center for working children in Bab el Tebbaneh was inaugurated. It provides the infrastructure for a three-year project that includes school reintegration programs and support for children at risk of dropping out of school.